Tove Jansson Rediscovered
Best known to English-speaking audiences as the creator of the Moomin books, Tove Jansson was also a novelist, short-story writer, memoirist, painter, cartoonist and creator of picture-books. Tove Jansson Rediscovered brings the full range of Jansson’s artistic and literary creativity to light.
The nineteen essays in the volume, contributed by leading scholars from around the world, discuss themes of artistic and personal identity, gender and sexuality, childhood and old age in Jansson’s work. Jansson’s writing for children and adults, her paintings, cartoon-strips and illustrations are explored in contexts such as her membership of the Swedish-speaking minority in Finland and her life as an island-dweller.
Assembling scholarship in children’s literature, women’s writing, queer theory, linguistic analysis and reception studies, Tove Jansson Rediscovered updates the critical understanding of an extraordinary writer and artist.
"McLoughlin's and Lidstrom Brock's collection, the first of its kind in English, gives a fascinating picture of the work of Tove Jansson. It reads her well-known children's fiction alongside her writings for adults and her visual art, and in the context of the traumatic period of Scandinavian history during which she lived. The essays are wide-ranging and the collection makes a strong claim for Jansson as an artist whose work repays detailed critical investigation."
Dr. Alice Jenkins, Senior Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Glasgow
Kate McLoughlin is Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Glasgow. She is the author of 'Martha Gellhorn: The War Writer in the Field and in the Text' and the editor of 'The Cambridge Companion to British and American War Writing'
Malin Lidström Brock writes on feminism and biography in the Faculty of English at Oxford University.
"According to the astute introduction, this book aims at updating Tove Jansson's literary standing . It clearly achieves this purpose...The collection is intended tor English-speaking readers, and many of the essays are written from a non-Scandinavian perspective - however, that by no means diminishes its usefulness to Scandinavian readership. On the contrary, it is refreshing to see one's own culture viewed through foreign eyes. The usefulness of the volume is further enhanced by lists of Finnish/Swedish editions of Tove Jansson's works, English translations of the titles, British as well as North American editions, and a brief listing of secondary works. In addition, each essay is accompanied by a list of works cited."
Virpi Zuck, Oregon University, Scandinavian Studies Vol. 81, Issue 1, 2009
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